Predictors of Mothers' Behavior in Diarrhea Prevention

Abstract

Diarrhea causes severe dehydration and depleted nutrients due to the decreased nutritional intake, resulting in malnutrition in children. Diarrhea can also lead to death from dehydration if untreated. Globally, about 1.7 billion cases of childhood diarrhea occurred in 2017. In Indonesia, deaths caused by diarrhea in 2020 accounted for 4.55% of the 250,600 deaths of children under five years old and 9.8% of the 20,266 deaths of newborns. This study aimed to determine the predictors of mothers’ behavior in preventing diarrhea in children under five years old. The sample included mothers with children aged 1 - 5 years, who were recruited using purposive sampling. Roughly 300 mothers were interviewed using a questionnaire. Binary regression was used to measure associations between predictors and mothers’ behaviors. The results showed that the factors that significantly predicted mothers’ behaviors included perceived susceptibility to diarrhea (p < 0.01), perceived severity of diarrhea (p < 0.01), perceived barriers to diarrhea prevention behaviors (p < 0.01) and perceived self-efficacy in diarrhea prevention behaviors (p < 0.01). The model developed could predict 39.2% of the variation in mothers’ behaviors in preventing diarrhea in children. The strongest predictor of mothers’ behaviors was perceived selfefficacy in diarrhea prevention behaviors. The odds of carrying out good prevention behaviors were ten times greater for mothers who had a high level of perceived self-efficacy in preventing diarrhea in children. These results indicated that those who believe in their ability to succeed in performing an action can perform healthy behaviors.
 Keywords: perceived, mothers, behavior, diarrhea

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